


A Meeting In the Gale

by FromAnonymousToZ



Series: Lanternuary 2021 [2]
Category: Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon & Comics)
Genre: Ab Aeterno, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Ghost pirates, Lanternuary, Lanternuary2021, Like Ships the song is my inspiration for most of this, M/M, Pirates, Probably my biggest departure from the prompt, Short & Sweet, from the eternal, ghost au, ghost ship - Freeform, human AU sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:48:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28548873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FromAnonymousToZ/pseuds/FromAnonymousToZ
Summary: Here we areThe two of usLike ships upon a stormy seaFor the Lanternuary 2021 prompt: ab aeterno: "from the eternal"
Relationships: The Beast/Enoch (Over the Garden Wall)
Series: Lanternuary 2021 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2087931
Kudos: 14





	A Meeting In the Gale

Captain Enoch Cormac does not waver as his ship crests the wave, the sails snapping against the masts, his crew scrambling through the rigging as seafoam splashed up upon the deck. The dark sea churned above as lightning splits the sky, its bright tongue flicking through grey. 

Water pelts the deck as waves and rain alike compete to cover his deck.

His ship groans and bellows against the wrath of the sea tossed as easily as a toy in the hands of children. 

His eyes are fixed upon a dark shape on the horizon, a ship caught in the gale. Its black sails are the sails of mourners. The wind howls around him, licking at his coattails. His expression is grim, but delight dances in his eyes. 

“Miss Clara!” He bellows. His first mate stops in her tracks and turns to face him. “Pull up beside that ship on the port side!” 

Her response is swallowed by the wail of the storm, but he needn’t demand her to repeat it. He knows his orders will be obeyed. 

Slowly, his ship and the grimly decorated ship approach, circling each other warily on the sea. 

The distance between them closes as Captain Enoch leans forward against the banister.

The captain’s eyes scanned the ship's decks, empty, not a soul moving on their ocean slick surface. The two boats pitched in the violent water, their sides scraping against one another with a sickening crunch. 

“I do not see him,” Clara says from his side, her voice curious as her jaw clacks idly. Her words are careful as if she does not want to upset him. “Could he have found another vessel?”

“If his ship is here, then he is here,” Enoch says resolutely. He glances once more at the empty ship, it’s dark sails ragged at the edges, and it’s deck abandoned. “Fetch me a plank.” 

Obediently, his crew obliges, tossing a plank between the two ships for Enoch to cross. He moves to step onto it and finds a skeletal hand clinging to his shirt cuff. He turns and finds Mr. Leftlin, his rigger, staring up at him, a coil of rope in his other hand. 

“Please,” The man’s voice is earnest, and the hollows of his eyes filled with pleading. “Tether yourself.” 

Enoch laughs, not because he finds any humor in it, but to soothe the poor man. He claps him on the shoulder. 

“He will be there.” Enoch insists but wraps the rope around his hand to comfort him. 

He turns back to the ghostly ship and takes a calming breath as he crosses the gangway in three strides. 

His boots hit the deck of the foreign ship, and for a moment, everything is still. The storm seems to hold its breath as the ocean smoothes over flat as glass, the sky clearing to a sunny blue all at once. 

And then suddenly the storm is back, the illusion dissipating like smoke. 

“Enoch!” The voice rings above the captain’s head, and he turns his face aloft. 

Hanging in the rigging was a figure, its claws clutching at lines, more shadow and seafoam than flesh, with glowing white eyes. 

“Beast!” Captain Enoch greets, joy painting his voice as he fights with the wind to be heard. “I haven’t seen you since the Edel went down!” 

“I could say the same about the Mayday.” The luminous eyes blink down at him, the voice rings without struggling against the wind, seemingly spoken through the storm than around it. 

“We gave it a good fight!” Captain Enoch grins around a mouth full of sharp teeth, his skeletal crew peeling away from their tasks to gather at the banister of their own ship to catch a glimpse of the two captains. Their fear has been assuaged by Captain Edel’s presence.

Laughter booms like the storm from the figure as it dips lower in the rigging, its movements graceful and fluid as it edges closer to Captain Enoch. 

“I would have fought through the gates of hell to keep the Edel sailing. I’m glad to see your own stubbornness kept the Mayday sailing.” 

A hand reaches forward, detangling from the rigging to cradle Enoch’s jaw, luminous eyes inches from his own. Beast has changed since the last time Enoch saw him, but Enoch couldn’t claim to be the same man he had been when he had last seen Beast either. 

He certainly wasn’t the man who had stood on the smoking deck of his ship weeping as the sea lapped at his heels anymore.

“I see your crew was more loyal than mine,” Beast remarks dryly as those glowing eyes glance around the deck of Enoch’s ship. “You simply can’t hire a good crew these days, loyal to the coin and not the captain. It’s no way to run a ship, I’m afraid.” Enoch laughs, surging forward to pull his fellow captain out of the rigging and into his arms. 

“Oh, Beast, it’s good to see you.” He grins as the roughly humanoid figure in his arms shifts as if he was holding an armful of water. 

“I couldn’t leave you to sail alone.” The other captain says, grinning as what might be a hand falls on Enoch’s chest, tangling against his shirt., “How would we finish our game of cat and mouse?”

Enoch grins at his companion, wide and toothy. 

“I have a better game we can play now.” He insists, hands gentle as he cradles the odd shape, made of driftwood and shadow and seafoam, held together by rough pieces of rigging and line. Luminous eyes fix upon him like stars.

“Will I like this game?” The voice is curious and hums with the storm itself. 

“I’m certain of it.” Captain Enoch purrs as a cheer goes up from his crew.

* * *

Everyone knows the story of the Mayday and the Edel. 

They’re ghost ships. 

Everyone knows that if you see two ships sailing side by side, one with ragged green patchwork sails and the other with sails the color of pitch, you head for land. 

They play a game with the ships they manage to get between them, corralling the ship and shepherding it into the shallows and rocks or into the thick of storms. The scant few who have survived the two ships game recall singing, from one shop to the other, taunting the ship caught between them. 

The Edel had no crew on her deck, her dark sails untended, but flitting through her rigging was a figure who belted out sea shanties over the waves. 

The Mayday’s decks bustled with figures who did not turn from their toils to face their prey, boney skeletal hands always at work, hollow eye sockets fixed upon their task. And at its helm, the captain was a man who was less human than human-shaped. From the Mayday rang the choir of voices as each crewmember raised their own note into the chorus, their captain singing all the while. 

And if one managed to slip away from the two dastardly ships, they did not give chase, sideling back beside each other to sail onward as faithful companions in a ruthless sea. 

The two ships circle each other, riding on into endless sunsets in a boundless sea. 


End file.
